A music teacher at Calle Mayor Middle School in Torrance was arrested Friday morning after federal investigators discovered “sexually explicit images of minors on digital devices” in his Long Beach home, authorities said.

Eric James Mitchell, 36, was taken into custody when he left the school campus about 10:50 a.m. He was held on suspicion of possession of child pornography, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Home raided

Early Friday, ICE Homeland Security Investigations agents raided Mitchell’s house in the 3600 block of Los Coyotes Diagonal following a tip that came into a lead investigator at its attache’s office in Brussels, Belgium. Investigators are just beginning to examine digital devices seized from his home, Kice said.

“We don’t have any indication at this time that the suspect victimized any students, but our investigation is still in the early stages,” Kice said. “We are appealing to the public for any information they may have relevant to our ogoing investigation.”

Kice asked anyone with information about Mitchell to contact investigators at 866-DHS-2ICE.

Although Mitchell was home during the early morning raid, he was not arrested at that time and went to work.

It was not immediately clear why he left the campus. Federal investigators asked Torrance police officers to detain him. Jail records show he was booked at the Los Angeles Police Department’s 77th Street station jail and held on $20,000 bail.

Teaching job

Mitchell was hired to work at Calle Mayor in September 2014. His LinkedIn page lists his job as conducting the beginning, intermediate, and advanced wind ensembles, two jazz bands and the choir.

His job included planning and organizing concerts, events and other public appearances by the ensembles.

Mitchell additionally wrote that he has worked since October 2006 as a piano, guitar, bass, and drum teacher, providing one-on-one lessons.

From August 2006 to August 2009, he worked as a pro audio/technology salesman at Sam Ash Music, where he was the department sales leader for the Christmas season 2007.

Mitchell holds a teaching credential in instrumental music from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at Cal State Long Beach, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in music education.

“I was notified by law enforcement this morning that music teacher Eric Mitchell was arrested for child pornography,” Mosley said. “I have no further details at this time as this is an active investigation.”

Mosley said he was working with district administrators to make sure music classes continue without interruption.

The case is a part of HSI’s Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators. Since 2003, HSI has arrested more than 12,000 people for crimes against children, including child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and child sex trafficking.

Timothy Lee Lucas II, who was about to become head coach of Torrance’s West High School girls basketball team, is awaiting trial on charges of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in her Hermosa Beach home in 2014 while her mother and sister slept in adjacent rooms. Lucas was dating her mother. He was working at Manhattan Beach Middle School at the time of his arrest.

Larry Altman has covered crime and court proceedings in Southern California since 1987. A graduate of Cal State Northridge, where he served as editor of the college newspaper, Altman has worked for the Daily Breeze since 1990. The Society of Professional Journalists named him a "Distinguished Journalist" in Los Angeles in 2006. Altman's work was featured twice on CBS' “48 Hours” and he appeared eight times with “Nancy Grace," who called him "dear." He has covered hundreds of homicides and many trials. Altman has crawled through a mausoleum to open a coffin, confronted husbands who killed their wives, wives who killed their husbands, and his coverage helped put a child molester and a murderer in prison. In his spare time, Altman is an avid Los Angeles Lakers and Dodgers fan, is the commissioner of a Fantasy Baseball league with several other current and former newspapermen, runs a real estate empire and likes to watch old movies on TCM.